


The Only Option

by ohmarqueliot



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 11:12:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17099513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmarqueliot/pseuds/ohmarqueliot
Summary: Margo and Quentin take comfort in each other while dealing with their worry for Eliot. S4.





	The Only Option

**Author's Note:**

> That new trailer messed me up. I had to write out some feelings.

“I don't think we have a choice. If it comes down to it…”

Quentin's stomach dropped at the words Kady couldn't bring herself to say. No. There had to be another way.

“Say it,” Margo demanded, staring Kady down from across Marina’s living room. “If you're going to suggest it, fucking say it.”

Kady met Margo's eye evenly, but still hesitated before she spoke. “We have to kill it,” she said simply.

 _We have to kill it._ The silence that fell through the room was overwhelming. Quentin couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't breathe. Julia's hand found his and he held onto it tightly, trying to move past the insurmountable weight pressing down on his chest.

He couldn't accept that killing Eliot was the only way to defeat the Monster. There had to be another way, something they hadn't thought of, something that they could try. He felt sick at the thought of Eliot, trapped inside his own mind while the thing controlling his body hunted them down and played with them for sport. But the point was to _save_ him, not kill him, not give up on him. He couldn't, he couldn't do it. He'd fight them all if he had to, but he wasn't going to let them _kill Eliot._

_No._

“No,” Margo said softly, and he'd never heard her sound more dangerous. He looked up at her, and the ice in her eyes both terrified and relieved him. “If any of you even thinks about killing him -”

“If it's him or us -”

“- I will kill you.” He believed her. He believed every word. She held Kady's gaze for a moment before looking at each of them in turn, daring them to challenge her, and Quentin felt frozen in place when her eyes finally fell on him. Something in her eyes flickered, her lip trembling, and he knew. She was barely holding it together.

It was the barest moment, something that he was sure the others hadn't noticed, and then her mouth pressed into a hard line, her shoulders stiff and straight and her held held high. “We will find a way to save him,” she said firmly “That is the _only_ option.”

* * *

Quentin pulled his eyes away from the ceiling when he heard his bedroom door open, his body tense until he recognised the small silhouette against the dim light from the hallway. When Margo closed the door behind her, the room plunged back into darkness. Her footsteps were muffled by the carpet, but he heard the rustle of the blanket as she pulled it back and felt the bed dip slightly underneath her weight as she slipped under the covers.

He’d been laying on the side closest to the door, and he shifted over to make room for her, letting her hands on his shoulder roll him so that he faced away from her. Without a word, she pressed her body flush against his back, her arms coming around him and her hands pressing firmly against his bare chest. He wanted to hold her, to give and take whatever small amount of comfort that he could, but when he tried to turn around she held him tighter. “No,” she said, her voice small. He’d never heard her so vulnerable. Well, maybe once. “Please.”

Swallowing down the burning lump in the back of his throat, relaxing in her arms and wrapping his hands around hers. He could feel her breath against his skin, her face pressed against his back. “I can’t sleep while he’s out there,” he whispered into the darkness. He felt Margo nod slightly, but he already knew that was why she was here. He wondered how often she and Eliot would lie like this. He knew how much Eliot liked being the little spoon.

He blinked, and hot tears spilled from his eyes, running a trail along his cheek and pooling against the side of the bridge of his nose. He turned his head into the pillow to let it run free, sniffing and then letting his breath out in a long shudder. Margo pressed more firmly against him, and he thought he felt wetness against his back. “Fuck, Q,” she said, her earlier anger almost buried under helplessness.

It made him feel a little less alone, to know that she wouldn’t hide that from him, that she would let him see the fear that he knew she had to bury deep down. She was being strong for all of them - he could be strong for her too. Her grip on his hands was like iron - he tightened his, holding them against his chest. “We’ll save him,” he said, his voice thick. “We have to. We’ll find a way to get him back.”

He refused to believe anything else.


End file.
